My Blog Turns 2!

My Blog Turns 2!

Yes peeps! I’ve been officially posting on here for two years. TWO years! It’s been quite a journey. As I mentioned in this post here, this year began on a savage note. Some of the most hurtful words ever said to me in my life came from a close family member. Comments about what I’m passionate about not being a real career. Words that cut so deep that I felt a heaviness in my chest for 3 days straight. True story. But this is also the year of great things…read on to find out.

My first trip this year gave me a close encounter with hippos at Lake Naivasha.

First of all, writing for 2 years consistently every month is no joke. How many people are there who own blogs, but don’t post regularly? Starting is easy, continuing is hard. You’ve got to put in the work to come up with interesting content. And for me who writes about experiential travel, it means I have to travel in order to write. Sometimes I’m hampered by time and/ money limitations, but I still gotta write. And I have managed somehow.

Elephant enjoying its lunch in Maasai Mara, 2016.

When I started this blog, I had no idea where I would be going with this. It was to primarily share my photography work but I had no particular focus in mind. But I found myself leaning towards travel, with a focus on nature and conservation (and some updates on my hair care once in a while). Since taking this direction, I found numerous opportunities to travel thanks to Nature Kenya, my own plans and even by ‘accident’- like ending up in Suswa instead of Paradise Lost.

Expansive landscape at Suswa. Mount Longonot can be seen faintly to the left, slightly off-centre.

I’ve had the blessing of visiting some pretty incredible places like Lake Elementaita, Manguo Swamp, Namanga and even waste water treatment plants. Yes, the latter are beautiful and actually host a large population of waterfowl as compared to other wetlands. You wouldn’t know the photo below is of a waste water treatment plant unless I told you, right? The world is full of beauty, we just have to change our perspective.

Too beautiful for a sewage treatment plant, right?

This year I’ve also got the opportunity to be a contributor to an online magazine (http://www.zedamagazine.com). This is after several pitches to magazines that either went unanswered or the people I was talking to ghosting on me after an enthusiastic reception. Someone says they’ll be happy to work with you then they go quiet when you follow up. I had come to the end and thought maybe I should try something else…then I got the current job. It’s challenging, I write my fingers off but the owner is a visionary and if all goes well, I’ll have upward career progression here.

The future looks bright…

The beginning of 2018 was a period of travelling while broke. If I narrate the full story of how I made it to Magadi mostly on other people’s money, you might dismiss it as fiction. Naivasha/ Elementaita, Brookside and Thika Sewage trips followed the same narrative. This was a chance to exercise stubborn faith and it paid off.

At Lake Magadi during the Waterfowl Census.

As I said in my previous post, my family is slowly starting to appreciate the value of what I do through writing and travel. It’s been a prayer I’ve made for so long, until it reached a point I resigned myself to the thought that maybe they might never support me. Maybe I’d have to live with that grim reality. But here we are. Making progress one step at a time.

Day out with my bros on my latest trip.

And finally, I’m close to doing what I love for a living- real close. After years and years of having that strong desire but not knowing how I’ll so it. Having dreams so big that they scare me. And I laugh when I think about them because they’re so audacious. Finally I have someone to guide me how to go about it, and the dreams are slowly becoming a reality. If I told you a bit about it you might stop reading here because it might sound made up…but isn’t that what faith is about? Believing the impossible. God has come through for me in ways I hadn’t ever thought about.

Flamingo breakfast time in Lake Elementaita, 2017.

So watch this space, exciting things are in the offing about travel and hair care in a different way- I want to involve you all. I don’t know fully how it’s going to happen, but I’m operating on stubborn faith. And God always has a plan.

Hi, amazing twist in life and its dramas. Sorry for the hurtful pain, but it is life especially when you see through the lens of a camera and others reading lenses or without any. It will only make sense when it is paying off. Am happy to know of new openings a mentor and a light of progression in career. Always proud of what you are doing in blog space.